The Jefferson City Public Schools' ad hoc facilities committee generally agreed Monday what proposals to recommend to the full, seven-member School Board - but didn't agree, yet, on when to ask voters to approve the ideas.
"I still feel, I want to have our superintendent in place before I decide that," new board member Michael Couty said. "Whatever happens is either (his) success or failure."
Current Superintendent Brian Mitchell is leaving the district in two weeks, heading for a job in Iowa.
New Superintendent Larry Linthacum - who taught at Jefferson City High School in 1995-96 - begins his job July 1, after heading the Maryville School District for the last four years.
Board members said Monday they hoped Linthacum could attend next Monday's work session on facilities, even though he won't be on the job officially for another week.
Board President John Ruth, a financial adviser at the Wallstreet Group, said the possibility of rising interest rates in the coming months makes him more interested in holding a special election in November for at least one of two proposed issues.
Committee members agreed if voters in November would approve building a new east-side elementary school, it could be ready for classes in fall 2017. But waiting until next April, when the district already will have board candidates on the ballot so election costs would be cheaper, would mean a new grade school wouldn't be ready until the middle of the 2017-18 school year - so, it likely wouldn't be used for classes until Fall 2018.
Building a second public high school wouldn't be completed before Fall 2019, whether voters approved it in November or next April.
The committee took no votes during Monday's more than two-hour meeting.
But they generally agreed to back the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee's November 2014 proposals for:
Construction of a second public high school, to serve about 1,500 students in grades 9-12. It could go on the land the district already owns along Missouri 179 and Mission Drive, north of the new St. Mary's Hospital - but a final location hasn't been decided.
Renovations to the existing Jefferson City High School at 609 Union St., so that it also would serve about 1,500 students in grades 9-12.
The current high school opened in 1964 and has a current design capacity for 1,878 students - but had more than 1,900 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students in Fall 2013 and 2014.
Around 700 9th-graders attended the Simonsen 9th Grade Center in the last two years, in a building designed for 632 students.
If voters approve building a second high school, the Simonsen building - opened in 1926 and last added to in 2005 - no longer would be used for daily classes, Board President John Ruth noted.
Nichols Career Center and site renovations.
Connecting the Nichols and Jefferson City High School buildings. Currently, students have to go outside to cross between the two buildings, which sit across Jay Drive from each other.
Building a new elementary school on land the district owns on East McCarty Street, just north of the Lewis and Clark Middle School and about six blocks east of the current East Elementary School.
Ruth told reporters the Long Range Planning committee "met for almost 18 months and developed a really good proposal. ...
"The need is, we're running out of space."
The committee asked district administrators to develop plans for maintaining and improving education in current facilities if voters reject the second high school proposal.
"We're missing the boat if we don't plan on a contingency," new board member Pam Murray said. "What are we going to do if the bond issue does not pass?"
Couty agreed voters should know what the district's plans would be both for a second high school operation and without it.
"I think it's incumbent to let the community know, "This is what we will be doing in Plan B ... to make sure that we're accommodating the kids in a safe learning environment and trying to provide a first-class education,'" he said.
Board member Dennis Nickelson agreed, adding: "But do it in a credible way, so that we don't get accused of using it as a scare tactic."